Sunday, February 20, 2011

Food for thoughts from the Pacific

Hay cocos. But the owner has abondoned his ship...

Cochayuyo. You can actually eat this. It is an algue and the Chilean coast is filled with them. Its not maybe my favourite dish but I like the fact that it has a commercial value. It just disappears from the beach in less than 24h. Simple as that. Think of this: what it the algues of the Baltic sea would have a commercial value?

What species is this? Two days before we left on our journey I accompanied my girl´s day care group in the woods. They walked around looking for animal traces in the snow. According to my girl, they found both tiger and lion feet in the snow. So what can this be. I just wonder.

Chileans like to spend the vacation in a clan. Here you can se a typical example of it. We Finns mostly hide away in our remote summer cottages out in the woods. The Chileans cram themselves into the same squaremeter on the beach althoug the whole coast is filled with beautiful empty sand beaches. What about an experiment: lets put a Finn on the crammed Chilean beach and a Chilean in the deserted Finnish woods. Who will freak out first?

The waves of the Pacific can be so much fun. We spent numerous days just running away from the waves. But they are also dangerous. It is not only big tsunamis that kill. In Chile the death toll of crazy summer vacationers is already over 60, and still rising. Not even the natives seem to understand the sign "playa no apta para bañar" (beach not apt for bathing). My in-laws saw a cool Santiaguino trying to show off by swimming on such a beach. He was lucky that the waves brought him up on the beach and not out to the sea. The currents are to be respected.